On the National Day of Prayer, let’s also consider the power of confession

2 Chronicles 7:13–14 (NIV): 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Thursday, May 6 is the National Day of Prayer. Here in Harrodsburg, many of us will either gather on the courthouse steps at noon or at Pioneer Baptist Church at 7 p.m. to participate in a prayer service. The purpose of this prayer service is to ask the Lord to heal and bless our nation and send revival.

I believe in the power of prayer. Jesus quoted the Old Testament when he said that, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” If God-in-Flesh tells us that His house shall be a house of prayer, then prayer better be of the utmost importance for our churches. Because, after all, our churches are the New Testament houses of God. More specifically, the people of God are the church and therefore the people of God need to be a praying people.

But, if I am being fully transparent here, I must confess that I have been burdened by a question that has haunted me about prayer and the church’s desire for revival. The question is this, “Is God choosing to not send revival to our nation because there is unconfessed sin in the church?” More specifically, is God judging the Western church because of her refusal to confess her sins of abuse, racism, and idolatry?

Please know that I am not thinking about any specific general church, but the Western church system as a whole, what I like to call the “Big C” church. Think about it. Over the past decade it has been discovered that many pastors have been using their places of authority to commit all kinds of abuse against their parishioners; sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and spiritual abuse. Has the Big C church repented of these abuses? Also, Sunday continues to be the most segregated hour of the week. Just that segregation alone indicates that we are comfortable with an implicit racism that allows our churches to be separated into different camps. Has the Big C church repented of this implicit racism? Finally, the Big C church has chased after the idols of political power and social influence much more than they have chased after Jesus. How can we expect revival to occur in our churches when we are more passionate about our political preferences than we are Jesus? The Big C church must repent of its idolatry.

Again, these are questions that have been burdening me for quite some time. And, please know that, in the words of the Apostle Paul, I am chief of sinners. Which means that the very questions I ask above, I ask most of all to myself. If we are going to see revival in our land, it must start with revival within the Church. But, if we are going to see revival within the Church, it must start with confession of our own sins.

Rev. Paul Gibson is Senior Pastor at Harrodsburg Baptist Church.